Which vehicle is the best? Part 2: the Covenant

Which vehicle is the best? Part 2: the Covenant Again, the information in this article was done completely by memory so it may not be completely accurate.

Now it is the Covenant's turn to give us their champions! The same rules apply, no 'special’ vehicles, vehicles that cannot be driven or otherwise controlled in the Halo Games. Technically, one can control a small part of the 'Harvester' during Halo 4's Spartan Ops, but I this 'vehicle' is not up for a medal; the same counts for the Shadow, where you can only operate a turret. Even though one can drive the Anti-Air Wraith during Halo: Spartan Assault, this functions only as a normal Wraith without its huge power boost as seen during Halo 3's campaign for instance, the AA Wraith is not up for a medal. The rest of the vehicles are: Spirit, Phantom, Lich and any large spaceships.

The rest of the article is structured in the same way as last time, divided into 3 sectors and thus given us 3 champions.

Speed/Manoeuvrability

Which vehicles need their speed, a Scarab surely doesn't need it right? The same goes for the Locust, pretty much a weaker version of the Scarab but with a slightly larger range. The Chopper and Prowler are pretty quick (especially the Chopper with boost) but are not really manoeuvrable in the lateral way, unless (completely) stationary. The Revenant and the Wraith may be able to strafe, but they are very slow in turning to face their opponent. The Revenant is able to fire in a wider angle than just straight ahead, but only if a NPC pilots it, so I don’t think that is fair to include in this assessment.

That leaves the Ghost, Banshee and Vampire.

Let's start with the Vampire, only seen during Halo Wars. It is pretty quick and strong, but cannot boost and is slow to turn and thus vulnerable to speedy attacks. The Vampire is just too slow to be able to have a medal.

The Banshee is very much like the Vampire, but a lot quicker and easier to evade during attacks. Not only can it roll to its left/right and do a flip, it can also use its boost ability to quickly escape enemy fire. It does have a major drawback though, it has a really big turning circle and it cannot hover in one spot without falling to the ground.

The Ghost however, has the ability to turn pretty quickly on the spot, has a slightly weaker boost ability and can evade and attack at the same time while strafing. Its hover ability also means it can easily drive over rough terrain, leaving its wheeled competitors behind in a cloud of dust. I think this medal should go to the Ghost!

Offence/defence

All vehicles in this article were designed and made to dispatch of a certain enemy type, a Ghost is very competent against personnel while a Wraith is mostly for the vehicles and fortifications. As last time, this one will go to the vehicle with the right balance of offence and defence for its specified job.

Lets start of with the winner of the first medal, the Ghost. In pure defensive power, it is pretty vulnerable when attacked from anywhere except from the front; but even then the armour is only so strong, a one-hit kill for any powerful weapon/vehicle. It’s offensive power is based on its pretty weak cannons and its ability to just run people over. Running them over leaves the driver highly vulnerable against melee and/or grenades, the Ghost does not win its second medal here… The same goes pretty much for the Chopper, although they have a much higher offensive power, their boost makes it hard to control the vehicle; their boost is not a continuous boost, but a short burst of energy. In defensive power, the Revenant is pretty much the same as the Ghost and Chopper and his offensive power is much higher if a NPC is driving it. The benefit of the Revenant is that its cannon cannot only shoot over obstacles and thus the ability to fire against an powerless enemy, the passenger’s seat gives it the ability to be more powerful with weaponry and/or grenades. But because of its inferior defensive power, I don’t think this vehicle stands a change… I can be pretty short on the Prowler as well; it has only a turret and the ability to run people over. I don’t know about its defensive capabilities, but its offensive power is just too low to be able to win a medal here.

The flying vehicles are in a completely different league here; they require a high offense while maintaining a minimum defence in order to stay in the air. They simply evade attacks while shooting down enemies whenever they have the change. However, a Banshee most of the times has a lot of ground to cover and thus unable to evade every attack, not as much in the FPS’s, but usually fly around looking for enemies. Their offensive power is simply not enough to negate their low shielding and thus is not the winner of this medal. I can be short about the Vampire, they are slower than the Banshees, weaker offense and immobile while sucking the life out of other vehicles.

Now lets go to the big boys, the Wraith, the Locust and the Scarab! Lets begin with the Locust, a pretty slow vehicle with a large range. But don’t let this fool you, even though it has a large range, doesn’t make it powerful, it is actually pretty far from it. Not only is its beam pretty weak, it is completely open to attacks with its inferior armour, it is highly unlikely this Locust can survive an enemy assault. Its big brother however, is /very/ powerful and is pretty often a decisive factor in the battle with its enormously powerful, long-ranged, beam of destruction. Not only that, it can survive an onslaught of tanks for very long, maybe even defeat and entire tank army if played right. But for all that comes with its greatest weakness, its /very/ slow; it can be defeated by a single (very patient) Warthog by just driving circles around it evading the main cannon. But it has learned to counter that in its later version by having a small army on top using turrets and their weaponry to defend it, especially its highly vulnerable core (design-flaw?).

And what about the Wraith? It is seen very often in battle with its powerful main weapon and a turret, very powerful weapons against pretty much anything; able to kill a fully-shielded SPARTAN in a single blow. But its ability to hurl large blobs of hot plasma at you, doesn’t make it indestructible, it can easily be picked of from a distance or from its air-vent at the back.

Considering all the vehicles I am going with the Scarab, even though its core is very vulnerable, it can kill you from a large distance with its highly accurate beam of destruction.

Effective range

Like last time, an effective range is a powerful vehicle that can easily be dispatched on a large battlefield, so lets only consider the winner/runner ups of the last two categories: The Ghost, Banshee, Vampire, Scarab, Wraith and Locust.

While the Scarab and the Locust have a large range, their slow moving makes it difficult for them to really patrol a battlefield. Even though the massive Scarab can scale hills to get to a location quicker, it is still moving at a slow pace. The Ghost and Wraith are able to move around quickly because of their boost ability and general quickness, but are still kept to the ground. As expected, this medal has to go to a vehicle that doesn’t need the ground to move around the battlefield, it needs an aerial vehicle, so I can chose between the Banshee and the Vampire and I think the decision is made very easily.

The Vampire is slow and has pretty weak cannons, while the Banshee can boost, has two types of weapons and can dodge incoming fire pretty easily. There is no question, the Banshee takes this spot!

So there you have it, we have 3 candidates from the Covenant team: The Ghost, the Scarab and the Banshee! Last time I picked the three best UNSC vehicles, namely: The Grizzly, the Gauss Hog and the Sparrowhawk. Next week these 6 vehicles will go all out and we’ll see which vehicles comes out victorious, it is every vehicle for themselves!